


Rule Number Four

by Soll



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, mostly silly with a touch of emotional honesty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soll/pseuds/Soll
Summary: in which Jace wanders around alternate dimensions once again.kissing ensues. some blood gets mentioned. Jace makes fun of curses. Alec is, for once, happy.“We were- were we- were we a thing?”“Either that, or we had a really intense friendship.”this was written after season one and before season two. really, it's just set in an ideal timeline where they're all in the institute without impending mortal danger or drama- just shadowhunters shadowhunting.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	Rule Number Four

**Author's Note:**

> previously published on tumblr on 2016 at now wascladdario, but now made better! i've fallen in love with jalec all over again and i needed this on ao3

Jace was sure there had to be a special place in hell for Magnus Bane.

A fine ass house in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by nothing but demonic dead trees. Maybe a cow or two. No clubs, no alcohol, no parties- nothing to do aside enjoying a quite mundane life.

Jace stabbed a demon in the gut.

_It will be easy, for a Shadowhunter like you. A legend._

What pissed Jace off the most was that he had seen through the flattery and still went along with it.

He spun, punched a demon in the face, used the momentum to kick another in the chest, and drew his seraph blade right through the first one’s forehead.

_You’ll just need to pop there, give this little charm back to its rightful owner, and call it a day!_

Last time he had ventured in an alternate dimension, he had gotten back with a potentially lethal demon wound, a murderous father, a sister and a kick in the gut not to say some other places. He should have known better.

He stabbed the last horror in the vicinity. He panted, and stared in the direction of the next broken demonic screech.

_Don’t you worry, this will be completely different than last time. My friend Tessa will guide the operation, and Brother Zachariah will be happy to assist. The Clave fully endorse this mission._

He would regret this forever, he knew. Hopefully he would made it out barely alive, just in time to be kidnapped from the arms of death, once again, by the sparkling hyena and his favorite accomplice Clary. His sister-sister-sister.

He screamed running toward the demon, run the blade right trough his torso, and abruptly came to a stop.

At least this world had seraph blades and all kind of useful demon killing tricks. Of course it meant there were a lot more demons around, but he was used to it.

He took a look around, and felt more screeching on his left, from the other side of the parking lot he had found himself in. For once, complications were not on the direction he was heading towards. It felt weird, letting demons on the run, but this wasn’t his world to protect. Fake Jace would have taken care of it once real Jace was back to his own world. He was about to turn and take a run for this Emma Carstairs’ house, but he heard very familiar steps around the corner.

“You didn’t tell me you were stopping by.”

He turned and looked at Alec.

No, not Alec. Fake Alec. Fake Alec looked a lot like real Alec: he had the messy hair, the frown, and apparently the same tendency to pop up when Jace was up to something shady.

“Hey.” he said, taking a step toward him out of habit. “Listen, I kind of have something to deal with, could you cover it for me?”

He gestured to the crashing and slithering and screeching. At least there was no human scream to be heard. Yet.

“Joke is old, Morgenstern. Call those parabatwins of yours if you need someone to do your job for you.”

Jace blinked. Then he took a good look at his parabatai, and noticed this particular brand of Alec didn’t come with bows, arrows, or runes. He was dressed in Alec’s fashion: black jeans and a grey sweater that had probably many identical siblings in his wardrobe, but he was also sporting an I-pod and some earphones.

Rule number 36, music is a distraction. It was one that Valentine hadn't believed in, and that had hurt to learn when he got to the Institute. To this day, Jace only listened to music when he was hanging out with Izzy or one of his -now scarce- occasional lovers. He was positive Alec only ever listened to music by mistake: hunting some demon in a club or passing by a street performer.

Fake Alec wasn’t just a regular Fake Alec. He was a _mundane_ Alec.

Jace smirked. He couldn’t wait to report back to the Shadowhunters' poster boy his legacy was tainted.

“Today’s thing-” oh, the familiar way Alec said _thing_ , like it was almost a dirty world. “Is it an _I'm_ _saving the world from impending doom_ one, or just your regular protect the human kind business?”

“Neither. Today I’m on special duty.”

“Ah. I see.” Fake Alec said, with a grin a little too broad to be regular Alec on a regular outing. “You still should make sure to get rid of those demons, first. Goes to your interest too. You don’t want your special duties to be interrupted.”

Jace stood still as Alec raised a hand, brought it up to Jace's leather jacket, tugged at one side of it, and only then set Jace free again.

Jace would have liked to say he was surprised by Fake Jace’s game, but he really wasn’t. It was him he was talking about, after all: he sure could provide himself some _special duty_. What had left him puzzled was Alec's allusive smirk. He would have expect more of a disapproving grunt.

“Gonna go do just that, then. You better go somewhere safe.”

“Will do. See you in- twenty minutes?”

Jace blinked. Alec was grinning at him like the little shit he was, putting one earbud back on.

He always did, no matter how much Jace hated those strings getting in the way.

Jace run a hand trough his hair instinctively. He felt dizzy at the texture of unruly wavy hair under his fingers.

“You’re being weird. You sure Simon and your sister can’t take care of that?”

Jace gestured mildly, trying to get it together.

“They can’t, they’re on patrol somewhere else,” he improvised.

“Mh. You sure you okay?”

Alec touched his jaw gently but firmly, as to try and check if he was fine.

Jace grinned and took a step foward.

“You always worry so much. Think I can’t take care of myself?”

He was so close he could smell Alec’s familiar scent of soap and bubblegum.

“Pretty much. You’re always so reckless, I always hope I could be at your side. Fighting with you.”

Jace took a deep breath.

Right. Alec wouldn’t be with him killing demons because Fake Alec was a mundane. Fake Alec, Real Jace.

Real Jace had a very real feeling meeting Fake Alec should have been a thing to avoid.

“Be careful, okay?”

Alec's intense gaze almost overwhelmed him. He knew it far too well. At once Jace was sure he was still him, but that he wasn't the only one responding to the worry and care in Alec's voice.

“I’ll try to.” he said back, feeling Alec’s warm hand at the base of his neck, his thumb brushing his collarbone in a soothing way.

It was strange.

It was normal.

It was what always happened.

It was what could have happened.

Alec’s chuckled and leaned in.

Jace was not stupid. He had see it coming. His plan was to play hard to get, let Alec do his thing, leave to murder some demons, go to Emma Carstairs, leave that dimension for good. Maybe leave a note for Fake Jace that he had some special duty waiting to be taken care of.

So he didn’t stand on his toes, but let Alec bent all the way down, and it was only for basic credibility that he raised a hand to cup Alec’s face when he felt his lips pressing against his mouth.

That was easy to tell from the truth, at least. Alec kissing him was not something he could mistake for reality. Alec didn’t want to kiss him.

But he did, and Jace couldn't stop thinking about it, and Alec _was_ kissing him

and they kissed all the damn time. Not that he never got bored of it.

Jace bit down on Alec’s bottom lip and stepped closer, pressing his body against Alec, pulling away to breath him in, yanking that damn string away. Alec’s hand was on the small of his back, and the other was pressed between them, and Jace could feel it against his heart, the rush of blood pumping trough his veins. He didn’t want to let go, ever. But, as he had learned indulging in mundane hobbies for the last five years, mundies had rules too. Rule number four: kiss him goodbye at the door, and leave him wanting more.

He smirked and pulled away, one step at a time, keeping only his open hand flat against Alec’s chest. Alec was looking at him with eyes dark and a grin that was not looking pure.

“Gotta wait for it, Snow White. I had demons to take care of. Humanity to save.”

He didn’t knew why he said that, but then he felt the screeching. Right.

“You’re a tease.”

Alec said like he had done a billion times, lacing his fingers trough Jace’s, right against his heart.

“And you love it. See ya later.”

“Only if you do a good job at saving humanity, remember.”

Alec grinned, Jace winked, and a second later his hand was cold and he was running.

Running were, exactly?

And how did he end up at Alec’s house? He was supposed to be at that vampire fair in the East-

“Jace?”

He turned and looked at Alec, who was looking somehow taller than he usually did. Like he was standing up straight.

“Yeah?” he asked.

Alec covered their distance in two steps, graceful and fast and efficient. Alec did not walk like that. Alec stumbled. A lot. It was adorable, and it give Jace a lot of excuses to hold him. He loved his Alec normal sized and stumbling, thank you very much.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?”

Jace was, in fact, feeling pretty lost.

“Jace?”

There was something really, really wrong in the way Alec was looking at him.

Like he wanted to touch him, but he couldn’t.

But Alec could touch him, always. Jace was about to tell him, but Alec grabbed his arm out of the blue.

“Damn.” he heard him muttering, while he rushed to get his sleeve out of the way.

Alec was never so brash. Alec was never so sure. Alec was never this.

Alec was not a Shadowhunter.

A Shadowhunter was everything Alec was.

Jace felt like coming up for air.

“Alec. It’s okay, you can- _what the hell_?”

He pressed his hand against his steaming forearm.

“Jace.”

His arm was on fire. He almost missed the relief in Alec’s voice.

“Yeah, it’s me, you idiot.”

“This idiot just saved you from dying.”

Goodbye relief, welcome anger.

“A _fire_ rune? You could have chosen something a little less harsh.”

“Hey, it worked.”

“Arguably. I came to may senses before you tried to set me on fire.”

“Sure.”

“ _Yes_. Just admit it, you wanted to see me in pain.”

“Maybe I did. Why the hell did you accept to do this? This is insane.”

“I know, trust me.”

“Then why did you say yes?”

“Ask Magnus. That warlock of yours has a way with words.”

“That’s why you’re now allowed to talk to him only if I’m around!”

“Noted!”

“Okay!”

Jace was feeling a little out of breath. Alec looked like he was too.

Jace grinned and hit Alec with a strong half hug, half punch on his shoulder.

“How did you convince them to send you here?” he asked, while they started walking down the road to Emma Carstair’s house at the same time, even if Alec had no idea where they were going.

“Luckily or not, they noticed something was wrong with the portal, connection, whatever. They were already arguing on who was to come and get you out of there when I got into the room.”

Jace’s steps fell a little longer, and Alec’s a little shorter.

“And then you arrived and saved the day. My hero.”

Jace didn’t need to look to know Alec had a repressed goofy grin on his face. It was nice to hear the huff of laughter nonetheless.

“We’ll see if we make it out alive.”

“We will. We always do.”

“Until we don’t.”

Jace gave Alec a shove with the back of his hand.

“You could have stayed home, if you’re just planning of bring me down. I was having quite a lot of fun before you came and started brooding around.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yep. Actually, it was great timing you had. A minute earlier, and by now we’d be having another discussion entirely.” He slowed down and looked for a black rune on the grey concrete of the sideway. “Okay, there should be an opening for an underground passage. Help me find it.”

“What did you mean?”

Jace looked at him funny.

“That you have to look for a rune. You know, those cool tats you've got all over you?”

“No that, you idiot. My _great timing_. Were you getting sucked in because of me?”

Jace looked down. And caught a shimmer of black a few steps from him.

He crouched down and reached for his stele. When he didn’t found it, he looked at Alec.

“Come here and open this thing. And give me back my stele.”

“I don’t have one, I had to take yours.” Jace took his stele back and started marking a new rune over the one already there. “What’s up with that anyway? Am I not a Shadowhunter?”

Jace finished drawing the rune and looked as a squared panel of concrete slid on invisible trails. An iron ladder showed them the way to go: down.

“We make it back home, I’ll tell you everything.” he said, looking at Alec.

Alec looked back,

and Jace felt a little more than himself once again.

“Snap out of it.” he said to Alec, before jumping down the ladder. “Plenty of time to stare at my beautiful face when we get home.”

He felt Alec laughing just when he decided jumping was faster than climbing down the steps.

  
  


°

  
  


“Why do you always end up half dead?”

“Because I know you’ll be there to nurse me back to health.”

“Gross.” Clary wrinkled her nose with a smile.

Simon laughed ironically and folded his arms in front of Jace.

Jace glanced at Alec, who was focused on marking his goulish looking arm.

“And to think I was worried about you.” Simon said back.

“I appreciate that, vamp. Besides, who let you in aga- _ouch_.” Jace drew back his arm, but Alec strengthened his grip.

“Stop flinching.”

“Then be more delicate.”

“I’m not delicate.”

“Trust me, I know.”

Jace looked away the moment Alec frowned, as to question him.

“Gross.” Clary commented again, and Jace turned to glare at her.

“Don’t you have anything better than lurking in the shadows?”

“Actually, no. Izzy and Luke teamed up against the evil of the world, so taking care of you is the only thing I have left to do.” She widened her eyes in that adorable way, and patted him. on. the. head.

Jace glared some more.

“And, we’re maratoning the Flash. We fell awfully behind.”

Jace shared a look with Alec when Simon and Clary shared a ridiculous, lame, somewhat adorable fist bump.

“So? What was the alternate dimension like?” Clary asked, and Jace shrugged, shivering when Alec started cleaning his arm with a towel soaked in lukewarm water that felt freezing on his heated skin.

“Demons, ambushes, blood. Nothing new really.”

“I know you got impaled again. I want to know the fun stuff. Was I there?”

Jace’s muscles relaxed under Alec’s touch when he grazed the wound on his arm, still open but now looking way less deadly. He grinned at Clary.

“You and your little friend there saved the day. Swooped in and killed a dozen demons.”

“Not that we needed help.” Alec added in a serious joking tone, wrapping a bandage around Jace’s upper arm.

“That goes without saying.” Jace added, while Clary looked particularly smug.

“Wait.” Simon interrupted, waving a hand between them. “What little friend? Me?”

“Yep. You showed some serious seraph blade game, let me tell you.”

Jace looked as Simon’s eyes went huge. Then his smile.

“I was a Shadowhunter? A good one? _Nice._ ” he turned to Clary and they exchanged an high five.

“You were parabatai.” Alec said, securing the bandage.

Jace closed and opened his fist, distracting himself from the lack of Alec's touch with his newfound freedom.

“Of course we were.” Clary said, and Simon nodded enthusiastically.

“And Alec was a mundane.” Jace slipped in casually, before standing up.

“Ah!” Simon pointed at Alec. “How the tables have turned.”

Alec rolled his eyes and stood up beside Jace.

“He was listening to _music_.” he added, and Alec raised his eyebrow at him.

“Now, that’s weird.” Clary stated raising her eyebrows.

“It is.” Alec granted.

Jace smiled, looking at him. Alec looked back. They took their time to look away, now that there wasn't the potentially letal threat of losing each other into themselves anymore.

“Why was the connection compromised, anyway? They said you were getting stuck.” Simon asked.

“Minor fluttering.”

“He was gone.” Alec rebutted.

“I was not.”

“I had to set him on fire.”

“You _wanted_ to set me on fire. I was fine. And it was your fault anyway.”

“How was that my fault?”

“Well, Fake Alec’s fault. He’s pretty intense.”

“He’s Alec, of course he’s intense.” Clary agreed.

“You all say that like it’s a bad thing.” Alec jumped.

Jace, Clary and Simon all looked at him with pondering expressions. He crossed his arms.

“Anyway. We were talking, and I guess it was a little too familiar.” Jace shrugged.

“You weren’t parabatai.” Clary said with a pensive look. Like she was thinking back at her time in an alternate dimension and what almost got her lost.

“We’re pretty close there too.” he grinned, before hitting Clary on her shoulder and turn their back at them.

“I’ll go take a shower. Join me?” he said to no one in particular.

“Gross.” “You wish.” “I’ll come.”

They all stared at Alec.

“I mean, I’ll go take _another_ shower. A separate one. Stop being weird.”

He walked straight past Jace and got out of the room without taking a single glance back.

Jace was pretty sure Alec heard them laughing.

  
  


°

  
  


It wasn’t like Jace was avoiding thinking about him and Alec happily together in a different dimension, he was just not thinking about it on purpose. Otherwise, he would end up tangling himself once more in a tale about family drama, the Clave butting in in Shadowhunter's private lives, parabatai bonds, and the negligible detail of possible parabatai _curses_ if they were to ever touch. Not that the conclusion would be any different: Alec loved him, he loved Alec, it didn't matter how.

Thinking about it, his spot in heaven would probably resemble Magnus’ personal hell. Just with less demonic trees and more angelic cicadas around. Perhaps a piano. Alec always loved it when he played. Or at least he did before Jace decided to get all worked up about his father as he was playing a childhood favorite melody. Maybe the piano wasn't such a good idea for his cottagecore fantasy after all.

Once he had finally slipped into his t-shirt, Jace turned towards the door and went to lean against the door-frame. As he had felt it coming, Alec turned around the corner a second later.

“What did really happen?” he asked when he passed by Jace and entered his room.

“And you’re here because of this?”

“You almost died, I deserve to know why.”

“Now you're just being dramatic.”

“Maybe I will set you on fire again.”

Jace resisted a laugh, and lifted up a corner of his mouth. Alec mimicked him.

“I want to tell you, but I’m not sure how you'll take it.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“Why do you always go down the depressing path, Alec? No. _He_ wasn't hurting me.”

“Than what-”

“He kissed me.”

Alec frowned. It was a familiar looking one, that Jace knew meant Alec was trying to make sense of something that didn't quite fit the rigid mold of his personal truths.

“We were- were we- were we a thing?”

“Either that, or we had a really intense friendship.”

“Stop saying intense.” Alec apprised him absentmindedly. “And you said I was a mundane?”

“Leave it to you to focus on the most irrelevant detail.”

“It’s not.” Alec said back with assurance. “It’s not irrelevant.”

Jace opened his mouth but said nothing. Alec took half a step forward.

“We didn’t knew each other our whole lives. We weren’t parabatai. But we were together.”

“We always are.”

Jace had no idea what Alec was thinking about, but he knew it was serious. Alec was looking at him, but he wasn’t seeing him. His eyes were dark and his frown deep, but he had a light smile on his lips, and it seemed to try to focus on something that kept getting further away.

They were together. But somewhere, somehow, they had to have met. Maybe it had been a bar, maybe he saved Alec’s life. Maybe he had saw him nearby a demon's den and followed him home, just to make sure he made it out alive in that world full of monsters. Or maybe he had just picked him up in a bar.

It had to have been a much more uncomplicated feeling that looking at your best friend and chocking at the thought of being apart from him, again and again, until the only way you found to breath again was to bound him to you for life.

“I should- you know, I should go. I- Izzy texted me she will be back soon and I have to talk her.”

Jace got whiplash when Alec's voice interrupted his minor freak-out. He snapped out of it and smiled. He was sure it had to be kind of creepy, with the crazed stare he was no doubt sporting.

“Go easy on her. I don’t know what she was up to, running errands with werewolves, but you know she meant well.”

Alec seemed to ponder his words, than he nodded.

“Okay.” he said, without looking away.

He didn’t turn. Jace didn’t move.

Alec’s hair were still wet from the shower, their usual mess. He looked flushed from the heat, and a little bit more vulnerable than the usual almighty superhero.

Jace took a step forward. Alec didn’t take one back.

“It could be weird.” Jace whispered, without losing eye contact.

“Okay.”

Alec did looked a little bit scared. Also very focused, like he really wasn’t paying attention to whatever Jace was babbling about.

“Stop saying okay.”

“Okay.” Alec smirked.

Jace grinned. Then he was so close Jace was able to breath in the same soap they’d both been using for years, and underneath it the calming, familiar scent Jace used to steal sweaters to immerge himself in hoping to bring safety in his dreams.

Then Alec bent down, and Jace surged on his toes to kiss him, like he had done a million times to hug him.

It wasn’t the passionate, maddening kiss he remembered, his memory fuzzy with the love of another person. It was a quiet, desperate meeting of lips that knew each other but were never supposed to meet. A single heartbeat spiking, fingers lacing together and hands touching safe spots that had been touched a thousand times before, but not like that, never like that. Alec’s firm touch on his arm, Jace’s palm open at the base of Alec’s neck, Alec pulling him closer at the waist, Jace’s hand in Alec’s hair.

Everything he had searched for in stranger after stranger, knowing he'd never find it.

Jace drew back for a second, and Alec followed his mouth, not letting him go any further. His lips pressed gently against Jace's, breathing the same air. He tasted Alec’s bottom lip with his tongue, Alec’s grip on the small of his back almost hurtful, until they were kissing again, the only sound that of heavy breathing, wet mouths searching each other, blood pounding in their ears.

Alec took a breath against Jace’s cheek, just at the corner of his mouth, and Jace grabbed the back of his neck and opened his eyes. It was just enough to stop his sense of smell from being so sharp, to stop feel so dizzy, for the treacherous rune on his hip to stop burning.

Alec touched it over the fabric of Jace's t-shirt, tracing it perfectly.

“It is kind of weird.” Alec whispered against his skin.

“It’s kind of wonderful.”

Alec smiled against his neck. His fingers touched Jace's skin where his shirt and his sweatpants failed to meet.

“Never said it wasn’t.” he said, before pulling back, just to rest his forehead against Jace’s.

“Then shut up.” Jace smirked before kissing him again.

Alec turned slightly so that Jace’s kiss landed on his jaw. Jace bit down lightly.

“Okay.” Alec teased him, and Jace bit down harder, and laughed, and kissed him again, and he let himself be kissed, and finally let himself believe that he had found his place in the world, every insidious doubt extinguished by Alec's lips.

Only when he felt his back hitting the door frame, he let go of Alec’s hand and rested both of his hands around Alec's waist.

“Hey.”

“What?” Alec asked, making it sound both like he cared, and like he was very close to hitting him in the face for talking too much instead of just kissing him.

Jace was very familiar with that voice.

“You should go wait for Izzy.” he said, a brief kiss on Alec’s lips.

“You should really follow your own advice and shut up.”

Jace let Alec sliding his tongue in his mouth. Than he pushed him away.

“You may lose your opportunity to caught her redhanded.” he whispered kissing Alec’s neck.

“What game are you playing.” he said, not a question, and Jace felt his words against his lips.

“Mh.” he hummed, before pushing at Alec’s stomach, his palms wide open.

Alec took a step back and moved his hands to either side of Jace’s head, knuckles against the wall. Jace felt a little bit like a caged animal, but hey, he could always sneak under his arms. Not that he wanted to. Turned out being looked at with eyes that dark and lips that red made being trapped pretty arousing.

“You should go.”

“I think I’m fine where I am.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Alec stared at him. Jace could feel their heartbeats hitching, his mind coming down from the high, the parabatai rune still purring on his hip.

“Wouldn't bet on it, lately.”

Alec said, frowning, and Jace took the hit and laughed it away.

“I'll be here, Alec. There's nothing to run away from anymore.”

It was a slow, beautiful process to witness, Alec breaking out in a smile.

Jace grinned and grabbed Alec’s shoulder to kiss him one more time.

The only thing he wanted was to grab Alec by the collar and throw him on the bed, but that was not how he was going to play this. He was a gentlemen, after all.

And he had to do some required reading, just to be sure they weren't going to unleash a literal demon in the Institute. It would have been a little tricky to explain where it came from and why they were fighting it naked on an unmade bed. Although, they could try to pass their affair as a side effect of demon pox.

Jace was sure he would eventually take the (theoretical) treath seriously again, but for now the fire on his hip felt like an encouragement. Like it was telling them not to worry.

Alec tilted his chin up with his cheek and kissed him under his jaw, wet and open mouted.

Jace sneaked under Alec's arm.

Alec huffed a laugh and took a moment before squaring his shoulders again, back as straight as an arrow once again.

“Go.” Jace gestured him, opening the door for him.

Alec kissed him one last time, quick and dry. Jace didn't fall for it and kept his his eyes open not to miss Alec's genuine grin when he pulled away.

Alec didn’t look back when he walked away. He knew Jace was looking at him go.

**Author's Note:**

> ah, i've got a soft spot for this fic. hope you enjoy this blast from the past ♡♡


End file.
